So says Wamkele Mene, the Secretary-General of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area.
And no surprise. Given current circumstances (i.e. Covid-19), this makes complete sense.
Mene made this point during a webinar today on AfCFTA and Covid-19. He also recognised the inability of African governments to grant bailouts on the scale we see elsewhere in the world. He suggested that what Africa could do instead is accelerate intra-African trade. That, essentially, will be Africa’s ‘bailout’.
Good point, and certainly the AfCFTA will help with that, but with the start date unavoidably pushed back, challenges remain for sure.
So now we know the 1 July 2020 kick-off won’t happen. No news on the new date, though. I wouldn’t bank on a kick-off any time in 2020. Africa has its hands full at the moment, dealing with Covid-19. The main priority should be to overcome the pandemic.